Rainbow Streaks

To create these Rainbow Streaks, I used Julep Kate as the white base. (I'll post my swatch of that later.)

Pink: Orly Butterflies
Orange: SinfulColors Hazard
Yellow: Ulta Sun-Sational
Green: Ulta Limelght
Blue: Ulta Blue Streak
Purple: Ulta Duty Free Shopping Spree

The bottom two pictures show the finished product with Nicole by OPI Here Kim's the Sun on the tips and Cina rhinestones.

Here are my nails right after I painted all of the Rainbow Streaks. (No top coat.)

From left to right, top to bottom: 1. Paint your base color. 2. Using a small nail art brush, paint your pink streak(s). 3. Paint your orange streak(s). 4. Paint your yellow streak(s). Mine are hard to see in this picture because the yellow is on the side. 5-7. Continue on with streaks of green, blue, and purple. The last picture shows the manicure after I added a glitter coat to the tips and rhinestones on my ring finger.

I love the way the very edge looks.

Nail Repair - Tea Bag Method

I recently split my right pinky nail. It split beyond my normal nail line so I'm afraid to just cut the nail. Plus, I'm going to a convention this weekend and I want to do a design on long nails. I've never had to use the tea bad method to repair a nail because they haven't split or broke since before I can remember. I think that's because I use to keep them pretty short and now I want them to be longer.

Note: I don't know if this is how most people do tea bag nail repair but this is my way. Please excuse the dry cuticle...my right pinky is giving me real problems. Ugh.

Supplies needed: empty tea bag, scissors, base coat, and fine nail file (partially seen in last pic).

1. Paint base coat. If the split is really bad, you may want to apply super glue or nail glue. 2. While base coat is still wet, place a appropriately cut piece of tea bag over the split of the nail and a little bit past the actual split. 3. Paint another layer of base coat. 4. Once the base coat is dry, lightly file the edges of the tea bag piece to make sure there isn't a noticeable seam.

Cupcakes - Poll Winner

I always wanted to try out the cupcake look. This was much harder than I had expected but well worth the time. I think they are so cute! I used Grace Advantage French Beige, OPI Pink-ing of You, Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Lapiz of Luxury, and Blanc, and Ulta Duty Free Shopping Spree along with Cina rhinestones and Recollections microbeads for chocolate sprinkles on my ring finger.

Grace Advantage French Beige was used a a base for the whole nail. Grace Advantage is a smaller brand and their polishes are salicylate, formaldehyde, toluene, camphor, and dibutylpthalate free. The formula was sheer, as it should be, but was a little streaky with two coats.

Pictured with Essie Blanc

Pictured with OPI Pink-ing of Your

Pictured with Essie Lapiz of Luxury

From left to right, top to bottom: 1. Paint a sheer base color and, once dry, paint 1/3 from the tip of your nail up with a color (pink). 2. Using a thin brush, paint stripes on the pink using a different color (purple). 3. Paint a strip of white right above the pink and purple. Use your nail polish brush to round the white polish to try to match the curve of your cuticle. Then, with a dotting tool or round end of a small makeup or paint brush, drag some of the white polish onto the pink and purple stripes. 4. With a dotting tool, make your sprinkles and add a rhinestones on top.

Flower Blossoms

I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos, SinfulColors Nirvana, Essie Blanc, and Ulta 14 Carat.

Starting Left to Right, Top to Bottom. 1. Two coats of Turquoise & Caicos. 2. Using a small paintbrush, draw branches using Nirvana. 3. With a dotting tool, create the petals of the flower on the branches. 4. Using the dotting tool again I used 14 Carat to create the center of the blossoms.

Minnie Mouse Inspired

I used OPI Lincoln Park After Dark for the polka dots and then added little mouse ears here and there.

Right: Using a dotting tool, make dots 2/3 up the nail. Left: Use the dotting tool again to create the ears on a few of the dots you already made. This makes the Minnie or Mickey Mouse ears.

Indoor Lighting

Right Hand: Sunlight

Left Hand: Sunlight

Little Bow Ties for My Sister

I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Sephora by OPI A-ha! Moment, and Orly Instant Artist Jet Black.

From top to bottom: 1. Using a small paint or nail brush, draw a triangle shape on the nail with the base starting at the tip of the nail. 2. Use the paint brush again to make a thin line above the triangle. 3. Using a dotting tool, dot the outline of the bow tie. Meaning, put a dot in the center and one dot at each tip of the bow. Then fill in the rest with the black color. 4. With another color, create a little dot in the center of the bow. 

Chevron Manicure

OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress and Lincoln Park After Dark. I used Scotch tape as a guide for the chevron.

1. Two coats of I'm Not Really a Waitress. 2. I applied the corner of a piece of tape at the base of my nail. 3. I painted the nail (over the tape as well) using Lincoln Park After Dark. 4. Immediately but slowly pull off the tape.

Cherry Bomb Gradient

Tried out a different technique to do a Gradient Manicure. I painted my base first using OPI Pedal Faster Suzi! Then used OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress for the tips.

Starting from top right. 1: Paint a strip of the pink polish and red polish right next to each other. 2: Using a toothpick or dotting tool, drag the red up to the pink to blend the two colors only where they meet. 3: Press the makeup sponge right on the polish from above. (The sponge will soak up the color.) 4: Then gently apply the sponge to the tip of the nail, working your way up towards the cuticle to gradually add the red color. (You can focus more of the red on the sponge on the tip to of the nail if you need to.) 5: There is the finished Gradient Manicure.

The finished product

Novice Multi-Stripe Manicure

I think my taste leans more toward pastels with this style. Created with OPI Purple With a Purpose, Orly Sweet Peacock and Instant Artist Jet Black, Ulta Silver Lining, SinfulColors Hazard.

In Sunlight

Lighting in my room

From top to bottom, left to right: 1. Paint your base color (Purple With a Purpose). 2. Paint a strip of your first accent color (Hazard). 3. Add a stripe on each side of the first accent color, preferably with a striper (Jet Black). 4. Paint a strip of your second accent color on the other side of the nail (Sweet Peacock). 5. Add a stripe on each side of your second accent color with the striper (Jet Black). - This a picture of just one design, but, as seen in my other pictures, I varied the stripe pattern on all of my nails -

Marshmallow and Jelly Sandwich

I was inspired by a Jelly Sandwich manicure that used Essie Marshmallow and A Cut Above. I loved the pink and white together but wanted to try something I had not seen yet. So here's what happens when Essie Marshmallow and Milani Teal sandwich up.

Two coats of Essie Marshmallow and two coats of Milani Teal. I also loved this look but had to proceed with the marshmallow and jelly sandwich I was envisioning.

Step-by-Step. 1. Two coats of Essie Marshmallow. 2. One coat of Milani Teal (just to see how it looks). 3. Another coat of Milani Teal (two coats total of the glitter). 4. One thin coat of Essie Marshmallow.

The finished Marshmallow and Jelly Sandwich. Love, love, love!

Rainbow Jelly

This Jelly Sandwich Manicure was created with Essie Secret Story and Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie.

Two coats of Secret Story and one coat of Rainbow in the S-Kylie.

The next step for the jelly sandwich: I added one thin coat of Secret Story to top it off.

Step-by-Step. Top: Two coats of Secret Story. Middle: Add one coat of Rainbow in the S-Kylie. Bottom: Finish with one coat of Secret Story.